Using Apache Ant To Run Parallel HFCD Builds

I only mentioned in the build.xml example that you can connect to one HFCD server instance. What I did not mention was that you could script your build.xml to connect to multiple HFCD server instances by using the Apache Ant <parallel> task.

The build.xml code snippet above shows the use of the Apache Ant <parallel> task with the <hfcd> task. If you are able to separate your extremely large project workspace into multiple pieces (e.g. project workspace with a large number of modules), you could use the above technique to distribute the build to multiple HFCD server instances, further improving overall build performance.

I did not mention it then because the above technique was not possible without being able to store the build data sent from multiple HFCD server instances separately. But now, it is possible. In the latest HFCD build (i.e. build 20100420), I added the buildData tag attribute to the <hfcd> task. The tag attribute specifies the directory where build data from a HFCD server instance should be stored.